I am from Poland and I’m professing the traditional integral catholic faith. I’m watching your videos and I’m reading your articles very often and I’m promoting your great work here in Poland.

I have three questions for you in connection with receiving sacraments from one priest.

We have one traditionally ordained priest in Poland, who celebrates the traditional latin mass exclusively. After he graduated from the SSPX seminary he then was ordained by the SSPX bishop. He left the SSPX voluntarily because he is sedevacantist and he claims that it was very uncomfortable for him to be privately sedevacantist and act in a non-sedevacantist community, although he knew that the SSPX has a number of priests who are privately sedevacantists.

After he left the SSPX he – if I’m correct – received conditional baptism and conditional confirmation from sedevacantist bishop Olivarec. He was probably also conditionally ordained by this bishop.

This priest celebrates mass in his own apartment and has nothing to do with the SSPX anymore.

The problem is that I asked him in private conversation if he believes in baptism of desire, baptism of blood and salvation of non-catholics through invincible ignorance. Then he answered that he never examined those issues closer from theological standpoint but… also said that baptism of desire and salvation through invincible ignorance in exceptional cases because of God’s mercy also seems to be in accordance with catholic teaching.

… This priest cooperates with bishop Donald Sanborn, for example bishop Sanborn was his guest when he arrived from the US to eastern and central-eastern Europe.

I received communion from this priest twice in this year… Summarizing, he is a traditionally ordained priest who celebrates traditional latin mass and he is commonly known in Poland for his sedevacantist position but he privately claims (as far as I know – only privately) – although he said he never examined those issues closer – that BOD, BOB and salvation through invincible ignorance in exceptional cases are rather in conformity with Church’s teaching. I have questions for you in connection with this case:

1) Can I receive communion from this priest?

2) Am I allowed to be married by this priest?

3) Can I help him materially?

Please, answer me as fast as you can because this problem is crucial for my salvation and also for the salvation of many other Poles.

Yours sincerely, Daniel

MHFM: We’re glad that you are promoting the material. The answer to your questions would be ‘no’ to all three. The priest you mention is in heresy, and he’s associated with the imposing heretic Sanborn. So, you should not receive Communion from him; no one should be married in front of him; and of course you should not help him materially at all. (There are certain sacraments one may receive from certain undeclared heretics who claim to be Catholic, but one must not receive sacraments from a heretical priest who imposes his heresy upon you. The principles on this matter are covered in our Where To Receive Sacraments file.) Even though Sanborn holds some true positions, he is sadly a heretic and an imposing one. To this day, Sanborn actually condemns adherence to the Church’s dogmatic teaching on water baptism – the position repeated in all papal encyclicals on the issue – as “mortally sinful”! That is truly outrageous, heretical, and disgusting. He is a total heretic who condemns the words and teaching of Jesus Christ, the popes, and the councils as “mortally sinful”.

Pope Eugene IV, The Council of Florence, “Exultate Deo,” Nov. 22, 1439:“Holy baptism, which is the gateway to the spiritual life, holds the first place among all the sacraments; through it we are made members of Christ and of the body of the Church. And since death entered the universe through the first man, ‘unless we are born again of water and the Spirit, we cannot,’ as the Truth says, ‘enter into the kingdom of heaven’[John 3:5]. The matter of this sacrament is real and natural water.”

Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi (# 22), June 29, 1943, addressed to the universal Church: “Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have received the laver of regeneration and profess the true faith…”

Notice that Pius XII officially teaches that if you have not received water baptism, you cannot be considered a member of the Catholic Church. That’s the exact same doctrine that we find in the infallible teaching of the councils. We see it repeated in the official teaching of the Magisterium after Trent and Vatican I. We don’t find baptism of desire or blood.

Pope Pius XII Mediator Dei (#47), Nov. 20, 1947, addressed to the universal Church, referring to the Sacrament of Baptism: “… the washing of baptism distinguishes and separates all Christians [christianos omnes] from the rest whom this stream of atonement has not washed and who are not members of Christ…”

Pius XII specifically teaches that the Sacrament of Baptism distinguishes and separates all Christians (christianos omnes) from the rest. It distinguishes the baptized from non-Christians in the same way that the priest is distinguished from the rest of the faithful by the reception of the Sacrament of Order. According to the Magisterium, you cannot be a Christian without the Sacrament of Baptism; and only Christians are saved, as the Church dogmatically teaches. Hence, the exact same doctrine that we find in the infallible teaching of the councils is repeated here, in the official teaching of the Magisterium after Trent and Vatican I. We don’t find baptism of desire or blood. This is the position that heretical sedevacantist priests not only reject, but call mortally sinful.

Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas (#15), Dec. 11, 1925, addressed to the universal Church, concerning entrance into the Kingdom of God: “Which Kingdom indeed is set forth in the Gospels as one into which men prepare to enter by doing penance but are unable to enter except through faith and baptism, which, although it is an external rite, nevertheless signifies and effects an interior regeneration.”

Sanborn also adheres to the utterly modernist denial of the salvation dogma that was rampant in the years before Vatican II. He is a modernist, but he doesn’t even realize it. Heretics like Sanborn and the priest you mention actually profess the heresy that pagans, Jews, Muslims, etc. can be saved without the Catholic faith, if such pagans, Jews, Muslims, etc. believe that God exists and is a rewarder.That is the opposite of the Church’s profession at the Council of Florence, etc. People who cling to such a position are not real Catholics. They would even apply their heresy to Jews, Muslims, etc. who reject Christ! Sanborn told someone we know that a rabbi who rejects Christ can be saved. In this video you can see the absolute proof and documentation that Sanborn and similar priests hold that pagans, idolaters, Jews, etc. can be saved without the Catholic faith. They do not profess the Church’s teaching on salvation. They are not real Catholics.

We hope that you can give some of the information we have published on the salvation issue to the priest you mentioned, so that he can look at it and hopefully change his position.

The truth is that almost all the priests, sedevacantist or otherwise, do not profess the Catholic faith on salvation. Some people are deceived by those priests because they are ‘traditional’ in numerous ways and they reject Vatican II. But that’s not good enough to be a Catholic. To be a Catholic you can’t just be liturgically traditional, accept some teachings of the Church, and reject the Vatican II sect. No,you must profess the Catholic faith whole and entire. You must profess all of the dogmas of the faith, including the Church’s teaching on salvation. (Sanborn also accepts and promotes the sinful birth control method of NFP.)

Since the aforementioned priests and groups do not adhere to the Church’s dogmatic teaching on salvation, they are, in a real way, comparable to the schismatic ‘Orthodox’. The ‘Orthodox’ accept some elements of Catholic Tradition, but they don’t have the true faith because they dissent from various teachings of the Church. Even though the priests you mentioned accept more elements of the Catholic faith, they are still not real Catholics, as they dissent from the Church’s dogma, and God’s revelation, on salvation. They are actually a deception. To be Catholic you must profess belief in all Catholic dogmas. To dissent from even one destroys faith and one’s relationship with God. In fact, almost 100% of the people who attend the chapels of such priests agree with or accept the heresy that Jews who reject Christ can be saved. They don’t have the true faith, and they don’t please God. They are fake ‘Catholics’. In fact, we recently corresponded with another such heretic, who shares the position of the aforementioned priests. She pretended to be a traditional Catholic and claimed to be a sedevacantist. However, when asked about Fr. Denis Fahey’s heretical statement that Jews who reject Christ can be in the state of grace, she responded by arguing that it’s not contrary to the teaching of the Council of Florence! Such a person is a liar, a heretic, and a false ‘Catholic’ devoid of the true faith of Jesus Christ. A person like that cannot please God and is on the road to Hell. That’s the case with the heretical priests you mention and those who cling to their positions.

That’s why this battle for the faith in the end-times is not just about rejecting the Vatican II sect, the end-times Counter Church, and an obvious apostate like Francis. No, it’s also about the entire Catholic faith, and in a special way the Church’s dogmatic teaching on the necessity of the Catholic faith and Baptism. The pathetic and wicked apostates of the CMRI are a prime example of how priests of the aforementioned groups have no faith. They all believe that Jews, Muslims, etc., even those who reject Christ, can be saved. They reject the Church’s necessity and they are not remotely true believers, as the following information sent to us by a reader further illustrates. Those who support or follow such unbelievers will be condemned.

Dear MHFM,

The email from Steven really touched my heart. It’s sad when dying family members turn a deaf ear to the truth regarding the state of their souls.

It’s the same with my family. Most are Protestant. They refuse to believe there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church…

I once discussed this with a CMRI priest and to my utter shock he told me he does not evangelize outside of his church family. If he encounters someone who is not Catholic he prays for them, but says nothing about the need to convert to the True Faith...As for Mother Teresa, two CMRI priests made known to me the need to pray for the repose of her soul. Just plain bad will…

Your web-site has been a blessing.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!.

Toni

Mother Teresa said that she loved all religions. So, they believe that one can love idolatry, love the rejection of Christ, love false ecumenism, etc. and go to Heaven. That’s diabolical. Someone who believes that does not have a faith that can please God. Since he doesn’t believe that the Catholic faith is necessary, it’s also not a surprise that the CMRI priest doesn’t evangelize outside of his “church family”. Their heresy corrupts everything about their spiritual lives. The faithlessness of the aforementioned priests and groups is also reflected in the fact that many of them, if not almost all of them, don’t believe we are in the last days, despite the overwhelming evidence and the significance of the current crisis. Apparently they think we could have another 100 or 200 years of antipopes! They are truly blind and faithless individuals. Here are some important materials on the matter of the Church’s teaching on salvation and Baptism, which is so frequently denied in these last days:

Pope Clement V, The Council of Vienne, 1311-1312: “Besides, only one baptismregenerating all who are baptized in Christmust be faithfully confessed by all just as ‘one God and one faith’ [Eph. 4:5], which celebrated in waterin the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit we believe to be the perfect remedy for salvation for both adults and children.”

Pope Eugene IV, The Council of Florence, “Exultate Deo,” Nov. 22, 1439:“Holy baptism, which is the gateway to the spiritual life, holds the first place among all the sacraments; through it we are made members of Christ and of the body of the Church. And since death entered the universe through the first man, ‘unless we are born again of water and the Spirit, we cannot,’ as the Truth says, ‘enter into the kingdom of heaven’ [John 3:5]. The matter of this sacrament is real and natural water.”

“If anyone should say that real and natural water is not necessary for baptism,and on that account should distort those words of Our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit’ [John 3:5], into some metaphor: let him be anathema.”

Pope Paul III, The Council of Trent, Can. 5 on the Sacrament of Baptism, Sess. 7, 1547: “If anyone says that baptism [the sacrament] is optional, that is, not necessary for salvation: let him be anathema.”

THE ‘CATHOLIC FAITH’, NOT JUST A ‘SUPERNATURAL’ FAITH, IS REQUIRED FOR SALVATION

Pope Paul III, Council of Trent, Sess. 5, On Original Sin: “… our Catholic faith, without which it is impossible to please God…”

Pope Pius IX, Vatican Council I, Session 2, Profession of Faith, 1870: “This true Catholic faith, outside of which none can be saved, which I now freely profess and truly hold…”

Pope Paul III, Sublimus Deus, May 29, 1537: “The sublime God so loved the human race that He created man in such wise that he might participate, not only in the good that other creatures enjoy, but endowed him with capacity to attain to the inaccessible and invisible Supreme Good and behold it face to face; and since man, according to the testimony of the sacred scriptures, has been created to enjoy eternal life and happiness, which none may obtain save through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary that he should possess the nature and faculties enabling him to receive that faith; and that whoever is thus endowed should be capable of receiving that same faith. Nor is it credible that any one should possess so little understanding as to desire the faith and yet be destitute of the most necessary faculty to enable him to receive it. Hence Christ, who is the Truth itself, that has never failed and can never fail, said to the preachers of the faith whom He chose for that office ‘Go ye and teach all nations.’ He said all, without exception, for all are capable of receiving the doctrines of the faith…By virtue of Our apostolic authority We define and declare by these present letters… that the said Indians and other peoples should be converted to the faith of Jesus Christ by preaching the word of God and by the example of good and holy living.”

Council of Trent, Sess. 6, Chap. 3: “But though He died for all, yet all do not receive the benefit of His death, but those only to whom the merit of His passion is communicated; because as truly as men would not be born unjust, if they were not born through propagation of the seed of Adam, since by that propagation they contract through him, when they are conceived, injustice as their own, SO UNLESS THEY WERE BORN AGAIN IN CHRIST THEY WOULD NEVER BE JUSTIFIED,since by that new birth through the merit of His passion the grace by which they become just is bestowed upon them.”

Heretics who write on this matter often ignore the dogma that one must have THE CATHOLIC FAITH to be saved. Remember, the Church doesn’t merely declare that one must be inside the Church to be saved. It also declares that one must have the Catholic faith to be saved. The two truths are inseparable, of course, but examining each aspect of this dogma becomes important when refuting heretics. The supporters of BOD in our day ignore the dogma that one must have THE CATHOLIC FAITH to be saved simply because it’s impossible to twist their heretical view into language that comports with the dogma that no one is saved without the Catholic faith. After all, how can one who is a ‘pagan’ (who doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ and the Trinity) also have the Catholic faith? How can a pagan and a Catholic both be in the one Church? – the one Church, which, by definition, only has ONE FAITH AND ONE LORD? It doesn’t make any sense. So, the BOD heretics typically avoid the dogmatic pronouncements which declare that one must have the Catholic faith to be saved. They also avoid the related dogma that one must be “born again in Christ” to be saved, for it’s absurd to argue that a person who is still a pagan or a Jew has been “born again in Christ”. They thus prefer the language that one must merely have ‘supernatural faith’ to be saved.

On this point it’s very interesting to consider the comments of sedevacantist priests Anthony Cekada and Donald Sanborn. In a theological discussion some months ago, they were asked whether an atheist can be saved. The person who posed the question pointed out that their view on ‘baptism of desire’, ignorance, salvation, etc., according to some critics, requires them to believe that an atheist can be saved. Sanborn, with Cekada agreeing, objected. He asserted that an atheist cannot be saved because one must have ‘supernatural faith’ to be saved, and ‘supernatural faith’ absolutely requires, at the bare minimum, belief in God and that He’s a rewarder. Sanborn emphasized that belief in those two dogmas (the existence of God and that He’s a rewarder) is what’s absolutely necessary for salvation, for without such belief an act of faith cannot be made.

So, according to them, the requirement to have ‘supernatural’ faith (a belief that God exists and that He is a rewarder) would exclude an atheist. But notice what such an assertion reveals. It reveals that their position does not exclude Jews, Muslims and many others from salvation: for Jews, Muslims and many other non-Catholics claim to believe that God exists and that He’s a rewarder.

In short, their position on ‘supernatural’ faith denies the dogma that ‘Catholic’ faith is what’s absolutely necessary for salvation. They thus depart from the revelation of Jesus Christ and the dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church on salvation.

The Son of God became man in order to redeem the world and reveal the Catholic faith. The faith Jesus Christ came to reveal (the ‘Catholic’ or ‘universal’ Christian faith) is not merely a belief that 1) God exists and 2) that He’s a rewarder. No, those truths were known in the Old Testament. The Catholic faith, which the Lord Jesus Christ came to reveal, of course includes those truths (Hebrews 11:6). But it also includes, in terms of its simplest components, a belief in Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity. If someone who wishes to be saved doesn’t know Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity, he cannot have the Catholic faith. That’s made clear in the dogmatic Athanasian Creed.

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Sess. 8, Nov. 22, 1439, ex cathedra: “Whoever wishes to be saved, needs above all to hold the Catholic faith; unless each one preserves this whole and inviolate, he will without a doubt perish in eternity. But the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in the Trinity, and the Trinity in unity; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance; for there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit, their glory is equal, their majesty coeternal…and in this Trinity there is nothing first or later, nothing greater or less, but all three persons are coeternal and coequal with one another, so that in every respect, as has already been said above, both unity in Trinity, and Trinity in unity must be worshipped. Therefore let him who wishes to be saved, think thus concerning the Trinity. But it is necessary for eternal salvation that he faithfully believe also in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ…the Son of God is God and man…This is the Catholic faith; unless each one believes this faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved…”

As we can see, the dogmatic teaching of the Church is not, as Sanborn, Cekada and countless other heretics teach, that one must simply believe that God exists and that He’s a rewarder. No, a person who wishes to be saved must know Jesus Christ and believe in the Holy Trinity in order to have the Catholic faith and be saved.

John 17:3: “Now this is life everlasting, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

John 14:6: “Jesus saith to them: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.”

Pope Paul III, Sublimus Dei, May 29, 1537: “The sublime God so loved the human race that He created man in such wise that he might participate, not only in the good that other creatures enjoy, but endowed him with capacity to attain to the inaccessible and invisible Supreme Good and behold it face to face; and since man, according to the testimony of the sacred scriptures, has been created to enjoy eternal life and happiness, which none may obtain save through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary that he should possess the nature and faculties enabling him to receive that faith; and that whoever is thus endowed should be capable of receiving that same faith. Nor is it credible that any one should possess so little understanding as to desire the faith and yet be destitute of the most necessary faculty to enable him to receive it. Hence Christ, who is the Truth itself, that has never failed and can never fail, said to the preachers of the faith whom He chose for that office ‘Go ye and teach all nations.’ He said all, without exception, for all are capable of receiving the doctrines of the faith… By virtue of Our apostolic authority We define and declare by these present letters… that the said Indians and other peoples should be converted to the faith of Jesus Christ by preaching the word of God and by the example of good and holy living.”

They deny that dogma. They are modernists. (In fact, both of those men still actually condemn adherence to the Church’s dogmatic teaching, that no one can be saved without the Sacrament of Baptism, as “mortally sinful”. That’s a further illustration of their heretical audacity. The fact that the Catholic Church dogmatically teaches that no one is saved without rebirth of water and the Spirit in the Sacrament of Baptism is proven by the words of Jesus Christ, the Council of Florence, and numerous other things.)

The truth is that the Catholic faith (true, supernatural, saving faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity) is actually only received at Baptism, as the Church has always taught. That’s how one is saved “through the faith.” That’s why no one can be saved without Baptism.

“This then is the salvation of Christians, that believing in the Trinity, that is, in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, and baptized in it, we believe without doubt that there is only one true divinity and power, majesty and substance of the same.” (Denz. 82)

Colossians 2:12- “… having been buried with him in baptism, by which you were also raised with him through the faith [διὰ τῆς πίστεως]…”

Galatians 3:26-27- “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through the faith[διὰ τῆς πίστεως]. For as many of you as werebaptizedinto Christ have put on Christ.”

Furthermore, in Van Noort’s heretical book it is taught that a man could love God with “his whole heart”, and want to do everything required for salvation, and still be left in ignorance of Christ. The notion that God would leave such a person in ignorance of Christ and the essential truths of the Catholic faith is contrary to the explicit teaching of Jesus Christ, as well as the position of the fathers and doctors of the Church:

John 10:14: “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine, and mine know me.”

John 10:16: “And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.”

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